Who is fit to be the next U.S. senator representing Massachusetts?
Dover attorney Kevin O’Connor doesn’t see a viable option running other than himself.
O’Connor sees two Democrats running, U.S. Senator Ed Markey and U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, as career politicians with nearly identical agendas to people who call themselves socialists, such as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York). And on the Republican side, he sees his opponent, Shiva Ayyadurai, 56, of Belmont, as a conspiracy theorist who is unwilling to have a debate.
“I am concerned about our country,” O’Connor told New Boston Post in a telephone interview. “You’re seeing this year people advocating for defunding the police, open borders, massive government expansion into the economy, and massive regulation. The career politicians will do nothing to change that. We have two Democrats with more than 50 years in Congress and they have essentially nothing to show for it.”
O’Connor, 58, a corporate lawyer who has not held elected office, noted that both Markey and Kennedy have little work experience outside of holding office. Markey, 74, graduated from Boston College Law School in 1972 and got elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives later that year, whereas Kennedy, 39, graduated from Harvard Law School in 2009 and ran for a U.S. House seat in 2012 without ever working in the private sector.
It’s that background that makes the Democrats in the race disconnected from working families and small businesses, O’Connor said. He also said that the Democratic Party is creeping leftward and is unrecognizable from what it used to look like.
“This is not the Democratic Party of JFK,” he said. “There’s no question that all of the energy and ideas of the party are coming from the Bernie Sanders/AOC wing. Joe Kennedy votes with AOC more than 96 percent of the time, documented by ProPublica. And Markey is the sponsor of the Green New Deal in the Senate. It’s not an environmental program. It’s a radical economic program that would bankrupt America and crush our future. And Ed Markey didn’t have the courage to vote for the Green New Deal. He voted present. Only in Washington can that level of fecklessness be offered as someone’s signature achievement.”
ProPublica confirms O’Connor’s claim about Kennedy. It says that “out of 849 votes in the 116th Congress, they have disagreed on 30 votes.” That’s about 96 percent.
Meanwhile, O’Connor said he would support legislation that is pro-economic development. He said he does not want to see the left wing of the Democratic Party use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to implement massive entitlement programs. Rather, he wants lower taxes and deregulation to be in the country’s recovery process.
“We have the highest unemployment rate in America right now. We need a senator who will help create jobs. Joe Kennedy and Ed Markey can’t do that. And Dr. Shiva can’t maintain his composure under any sort of pressure. He can’t win because he can’t hold together his composure, among many other reasons.”
O’Connor said that their lack of real-world experience has made them economically illiterate and warped their sense of reality.
“To them, government is the center of the universe,” O’Connor said. “They want everything controlled and provided by the government, and they have no idea how to pay for it. To them, the people in our state and small businesses are like automatic tellers where they can just draw money from them without regard for how it impacts the people of the Commonwealth.”
Other topics O’Connor said the two Democrats get wrong are law enforcement and illegal immigration. He said he supports the police and secure borders.
“Their clear intent based on their actions — decriminalization of border crossings, sanctuary states, full benefits and voting rights for illegal immigrants — that they are the open borders candidates,” O’Connor said of Markey and Kennedy. “They want to invite a massive infusion of people here without any control of who comes in. They will bankrupt our country. No responsible person doesn’t secure their home, office, or workplace. We should expect the same thing from our senators.”
O’Connor said he supports legal abortion but has disagreements with Markey and Kennedy on the issue.
“I’m against late-term abortion, the absolutist position. At this point, Roe v Wade is settled law, but I am against third-term abortions,” O’Connor said. “The Democrats want to expand abortion up to the point of delivery, and I’m completely against that. And I support the Hyde Amendment.”
The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funds from being spent on abortions.
As why he thinks he’s a better choice for the Republican Party to nominate than fellow candidate Ayyadurai, O’Connor listed several reasons.
“I’m a responsible conservative voice,” O’Connor said. “I have the experience and a proven record of taking on big challenges and winning. I’ve been effective in working with people. Dr. Shiva is a serial candidate and he has failed miserably. He has a well-documented record of being a conspiracy theorist and of losing his composure whenever he is pressed on facts about his record.
“He is unsuitable,” O’Connor continued. “He ran as an independent in 2018 against Geoff Diehl, our nominee, who is a good man. He was a max out supporter for John Kerry for president. He cannot be trusted as a Republican. He would be terrible for our ticket and for our party. He does not have the ability to stand up under pressure, which is why he’s afraid to debate me. He’s the Joe Biden of this race like how Joe Biden is afraid to debate President Trump. He’s got stuff to hide.”
Ayyadurai did not respond to New Boston Post’s request to respond to this claim on Friday. New Boston Post has also extended an invitation to Ayyadurai for a separate campaign interview.
Ayyadurai as an independent candidate in 2018 got 3.4 percent of the vote in the 2018 U.S. Senate race in which U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren won re-election.
Ayyadurai’s campaign web site features videos with titles like “WHY the Deep State Created the CoronaVirus Scam” and “Forced Vaccination IS RAPE – Statutorily & Biologically.” Ayyadurai has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory on his Twitter account and made many InfoWars appearances with radio host Alex Jones, best known for promoting the 9/11 conspiracy. The InfoWars store sells T-shirts that say “9/11 was an inside job.”
O’Connor said the primary election September 1 is just as important as the November general election.
“The primary is September 1. I believe this is the most important election in history,” O’Connor said. “I am a constitutionalist. I will support the appointment of judges who will enforce the law as written — not be an activist. This is a really important election for the Republican Party. We can’t turn the nomination over to someone who is unfit to serve.”
More information on O’Connor’s campaign can be found at KOCForSenate.com.
